Pain Blocker

Ever have one of those times with your kids that you’d like to forget? I did; this weekend! I hate to see my kids mess up and I hate it even more when they are in pain, but this was one of those times when my child needed to feel the full ramifications of the decision that was made instead of Mommy making it all go away.

It is so hard to not let my emotions get in the way at times like these. I want to take my child in my arms and say, “I know that you didn’t mean to. I know that you want to do what is right. I know that peer pressure is powerful.” But that was not what was needed. So I asked myself before I had the needed conversation with my child, “How does my Father discipline me when I step out of His boundaries? What does that look like?” The first conclusion I came to was that He doesn’t let His emotions dictate His actions.

In John 11, Jesus is confronted with the knowledge that His beloved friend, Lazarus is dying. It even says in verse 35 that He was so torn up by this that He wept. Yet, He held His emotions in check. He said that the purpose of this sickness was for God’s glory, so He needed to allow it.

How about me? Do I step back and allow the pain that my child is experiencing to be used by God to bring Himself glory in my child’s life or do I try to block pain from coming into the lives my kids, when that very pain could be the very delivery method that the Father wants to use?

I once heard that if my child is going to know Jesus as the healer, they have to first need healing. If they are going to know Him as Father, they have to need a Father. If they are going to know the Holy Spirit as the comforter, they have to need to be comforted.

I have to admit, this is probably one of the hardest things I struggle with. Lord, PLEASE help me to get out of the way so that you can be the God to my kids that they need You to be.

Comments

Oh so true. It makes me wonder…you know that old saying, “this will hurt me much more than it will hurt you”…I wonder if God sometimes thinks the same thing. I wonder if having to discipline His children makes Him feel just like we do when we have to allow our children to suffer their consequences. I think He can identify with our pain as a disciplinarian and He too cries over our choices and the punishment He allows to draw us back and shape us into His likeness.